SHATTERED TRUST

Elara’s POV

Like dazzling fragments of my life, the glass from the broken window strewn over the floor served as a reminder of everything I was losing. My fast breathing filled the room, and the tension there was so strong I could almost feel it bearing down on my chest. My heart was pounding, a wild thundering too loud and too inappropriate.

And he was there as well.

Dmitri:

At first, I couldn't understand the sight—his figure framed in the broken glass, the moonlight giving his face a terrible glow. Though his eyes were hard, analytical, there was something darker—even more dangerous—behind them. His mouth closed in a grim line, his hand lay sloppily on the revolver holstered at his side. His jaw stiffened.

I ought to have started to panic. I ought to have been in a sprint. Instead, though, something kept me still as if a deer caught in headlights. Once my everything, the man who claimed to love me was standing in front of me like an adversary.

Though the words stuck in my throat, I wanted to holler at him and demand responses. How could he treat me thus? After all?

Leo moved first, his body stiff and his presence radiating menace, like a protective shield fronting me.

Leo's voice was low, subdued, but tinged with a venom that made it quite evident he wasn't going to allow Dmitri go another step forward out of his house. "This closes now."

Dmitri did not show any resistance. He simply remained there, his eyes darting over Leo for a moment before back-tracking to meet me. For only a moment, his eyes softened as though he could still see the girl I once was in the wreckage of all now.

Dmitri murmured my name, "Elara," his voice low and nearly begging. "This falls between us. It has nothing to do with him. It never has been about him.

I stepped back, feeling as though my feet were dragging like I was walking across mud. I had to keep strong; I couldn't let him once more control me. Not following all he had done.

"No," I answered sharply, my voice piercing through the suspense. "This relates to you and me. And from me, Dmitri, nothing remains for you to grab. You have already taken sufficient.

His face changed to show a glimpse of something like regret. But it was gone in an instant, replaced by the frigid indifference I had all too often experienced.

"You don't understand, Elara," Dmitri continued, his voice rising in intensity. "You never do. I handled everything for you. You compensate me as I did all to keep you safe. running to him? After all I have done for you?

I swallowed hard, bitterness swelling in my throat. "Everything"? I laughed dismissively. "You find what I have done lacking? You believe I am ignorant of your use of me, Dmitri? That you have been playing with me all this time? You believe that after everything, I will simply sink back into your arms?"

Leo turned to gaze at me, his eyes asking a silent query, but I stayed fixed on Dmitri. This was about grasping control of my life, not only about me now. I refused to allow Dmitri to pull me back into his warped universe of lies and dishonesty.

"You’ve got it all wrong, Elara," Dmitri's voice sank to a whisper like a snake crawling across a cracked wall. "You weren't supposed to flee. You were never supposed to live this life, apart from what we had created together. And right now you are merely a pawn in someone else's game.

I stammered; the word "pawn" pierced more than I would have let myself acknowledge. I had always known, not totally, that my life was not my own. But listening to him speak it aloud made everything I had been attempting to flee seem even more oppressive.

"You don't get to decide that anymore," I responded, my voice quivering with the weight of my words. " I am not your pawn. I also am not your property.

Dmitri's eyes flicked, something dark and menacing flashing there. For a split second, I considered he would really snap or act out in desperation. Then he inhaled slowly, as though he were trying to cool off.

"You don't understand, Elara," he said, his voice quieter now, somewhat begging. "This is the only possible ending for it. You consider yourself able to flee from this? From my vantage point? Leo is supposed to guard you, right? He isn't able. Not from what is to come.

"What's coming?" I insisted, my voice getting louder. "What the whirl are you talking about, Dmitri?"

He grinned, but not the kind I could recall. Something nasty and twisted that he never saw. Soon enough you will find out.

Leo stepped at Dmitri with a wrath that thickened the air in the room, moving faster than I could process. "Enough of this," Leo snarled, his eyes sparkling with the same ferocity I had seen in the heat of fight. "You have stayed over your welcome."

Dmitri, though, did not appear bothered. He simply stood there, apparently savoring the force he still seemed to be carrying over me.

"I warned you, Leo," Dmitri replied, his voice nearly casual now, as though he were chatting to a friend. "You will never be rid of me, as I told you previously. She won neither.

I saw the strain develop between them, the tacit knowledge that neither guy would back off. Leo was still standing between me and Dmitri, but there was no doubting the resentment boiling beneath the surface—the shared history between the two men was as much a part of this moment as anything else.

"You have no idea when you should stop?" Though it was only a whisper, Leo's voice had enough force to cause Dmitri to stop. "You believe you might influence her? Consider once again."

Dmitri turned his eyes away from me at last, squarely at Leo. There was something inscrutable in his face for a time. Then it disappeared, replaced by a smile that raised the hairs on the rear of my neck.

"I have no need of controlling her," Dmitri stated in a chilly voice. "She is already my darling. And you have no way to reverse that."

The floor under me changed, the ground separating as Dmitri's words landed. He still believed he could regulate me. Still considered as little more than a component in his game.

But I was not.

I had lost my status as his.

I stepped forward, past Leo, tall in front of Dmitri, using all the strength I could gather. If I were terrified, it made no difference. If my heart was racing in my chest, it made no difference.

"I'm done," I murmured, sounding low and strong. "I'm done pawning for you, Dmitri. And I am done with you.

Everything in the room appeared to stop momentarily. Leo's eyes were on me, his quiet encouragement driving me ahead. Then, shockingly, Dmitri's face softened just slightly—as if he hadn't expected me to object.

"Elara," Dmitri replied, his voice becoming kind. "please. Try not to do this.

I shook my head and inhaled deeply. "It's too late for that."

But there was a sharp bang—a gunshot—as soon as the words left my mouth.

I stopped, my pulse missing a beat.

As I turned toward the voice, the planet seemed to slow down as dread flooded every side of my chest. Leo's face became white, horror widening his eyes. Then I saw him as though everything were moving slowly.

From the shadows a man surfaced.

the man I never thought I would cross again.

And this time he had company as well.

The man entering the room was Viktor Sokolov, the last person I would have expected to see during this conflict. And in his hands he carried a rifle, pointed squarely at Leo.

"Drop the weapon, Volkov," Viktor's voice was icy, direct. "This just got a lot more complicated."

And suddenly I understood—there was no way to avoid the anarchy.